Blackmail is a Bollywood dark comedy, starring Irrfan Khan, Kirti Kulhari, Arunoday Singh and Divya Dutta in lead roles. The film is directed by ‘Delhi Belly’ fame Abhinay Deo, and produced by Abhinay Deo, Ramesh Deo, Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar. Now, the film’s music has been given by Amit Trivedi, with one guest composition each by Badshah and Guru Randhawa. Let’s see why I found that the two guest songs were better than Amit’s songs here!!

Now, who knows what blackmailed Amit Trivedi into accepting an album with two songs by other artists, something I believe he has never done after a certain point in his career! Anyway, he starts his part of the album with a pulsating, electrifying rap song Badla, an ode to the underdogs in the world, who wish to take revenge on the people who’ve been unfair to them. The song starts off entertainingly, with Amit singing in his trademark robotic voice, making the song actually sound as if it’s sung by one frustrated with the ways of the world. It’s the rap by DIVINE though, that lifts the song up and makes it what it is, and I’m glad Bollywood has started getting actual rap songs this year, starting from ‘Mukkabaaz’s ‘Paintra’. Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics for the melody portion are functional; nothing great, but DIVINE and Dhaval Parab do a better job for the rap lyrics. Everything else like the techno sounds, is just as expected in a rap song.Bewafa Beauty doesn’t work as much as the first song; Amit seems to be trying to hard to make it sound like a 90s song just because Urmila Matondkar features in the video! The singing by Pawni Pandey is jarring at places, and the whole song as such doesn’t sound at all like an Amit Trivedi song. The lazy pace of the song and its neverending length makes it seem all the more boring. The arrangements too, are typical for such songs — there is no innovation in the synth sound, the dholaks, and it ends up sounding just mediocre. Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics are the only high point of the song; they summarize the story of the movie in five minutes.Nindaraan Diyaan starts as a nice sad song with a pleasant acoustic backdrop, very similar to Amit’s ‘Jhuk Na Paunga’ (Raid) that came earlier this year. Amit’s own voice works wonders for the song, and it gives vibes of the signature Amit Trivedi sound. But when the song breaks into rock for the entire second half of the song, it seems unnecessary and loud — it would’ve been better, had it been restricted for an interlude and not till the end of the song. Just like ‘Jhuk Na Paunga’, Amit adds a soothing backing chorus that finds its way through the mist of the rock and manages to soothe the ears. The lyrics again, by Bhattacharya, are the highlight of this song that sounds like any other Trivedi song, and has nothing much working for it other than that.
Trivedi’s last song Sataasat is a quirky song, again, falling in the trademark Trivedi quirky zone, but again, it fails to impress, even with its jazz sound, the slurred vocals of Trivedi and Amitabh’s lyrics. It joins ‘Nindaraan Diyaan’ in being a “good, but not quite there” song. I can’t even see myself revisiting these four songs anytime in the near future, which is unfortunate, because Amit Trivedi was in great form last year, and to see him give an entire chunk of songs with none standing out, is disheartening.
Surprisingly, or maybe not, the mass caterers please my sensibilities even more. Badshah’s Happy Happy really manages to make you feel happy, with the signature Badshah techno loop, and groovy rhythm, not to mention Aastha Gill’s playful vocals. In fact, the portions sung by her are some of the best in the song. The lyrics are just alright for this kind of a song, but at least the song manages to make an impression and stay in the mind.
Guru Randhawa’s Patola is less memorable, but my personal favourite. That cheesy 90s sound, which he adds to Preet Hundal’s pop single ‘Patola’, to transform it from a typical Punjabi pop song, into a catchy wedding song, really works! The similarity to ‘Suit Suit’ (Hindi Medium) is forgivable, mainly because Guru takes out Bohemia’s rap, and adds his own touch to the lyrics, to tweak them as per the requirements of the movie. The same cheesy sound that ‘Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun’ (Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela) carried, this song too carries, and in such an innocuous way, that it does create an impact.

Once again, who knows what blackmailed Trivedi into signing such an album where he was to share the field with two immensely popular hit makers, who end up surpassing him too, this time, as unbelievable as it sounds. Sadly this album is devoid of the usual Trivedi ’emosanal atyachaar’!

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